The Asian/Asian American Studies Program at Miami is an interdisciplinary program that applies a transnational and transcultural lens to critical inquiries into important issues both affecting and connecting Asia and Asian America and that prepares students to become global citizens of the twenty-first century.

The program studies how the historical, socio-cultural, and political forces shape our understanding and knowledge about people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage in the United States and in the diaspora. It aims to develop new paradigms and perspectives to close down past divisions and boundaries and to open up space for dialogue and engagement.

Raval earns Early Career award from American Psychological Association

Raval earns Early Career award from American Psychological Association

Vaishali V. Raval, Miami University researcher and associate professor of psychology, has been awarded the American Psychological Association's Division 52 Early Career Professional 2014 Award for her international research, teaching and efforts in delivering culturally informed clinical services to youth and families within and outside of the U.S.

Division 52, the international subsection of APA, presents the ECP Award annually to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the field of international psychology. Awardees are given the opportunity to present at the annual APA convention, publish his/her research in the Division 52 newsletter and become a member of Division 52.

The award was developed to highlight and encourage best practices in pedagogies that address global perspectives at the undergraduate level. The award winners’ efforts demonstrate effective and innovative teaching practices focused on preparing Miami University students to communicate effectively across linguistic and cultural differences.

Cho was honored for her teaching in AAA/ENG/WGS 351: Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Asian/America at Miami’s Oxford campus. The Liberal Education Council lauded ways that her inquiry-based curriculum helped to orchestrate meaningful conversations among the diverse students at Miami who enroll in her class.

This curriculum, writes Cho, “foreground[s] the dynamic connections and mutually constitutive relationships among different cultural and social groups rather than positing differences as passive objects to be ‘studied’ based on mainstream perspectives.”